


In the Twilight Hours

by lily8007



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood: Lost Days
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Facing Death, Gen, Goodbyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 11:04:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19294444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lily8007/pseuds/lily8007
Summary: Talia al Ghul has twenty-four hours to live.  She's never wanted immortality, and faces her end with determination and grace.  She makes plans to visit three important people for the last time.This fills the prompt "Twenty-Four Hours to Live" forTrope Bingo Round Twelve.  I made myself cry just a little bit writing it, so beware.





	In the Twilight Hours

On the scale of injuries, it was barely noticeable, a faint pinprick and sting.  But after the battle was over, Talia’s arm was still sore, and she examined it carefully.  Normally she healed faster than that … but there was an ugly bruise on her forearm, and it burned.

Searching the fallen, she found one with a needle and vial, read the name of the poison, and swore aloud in Arabic, Farsi, and Mandarin.  There was no cure or antidote for that one; in twenty-four hours or so, it would shut down her nervous system, still her lungs, and stop her heart.

Talia al Ghul was less traumatized by that than many would be.  She had died before, numerous times, by gun and blade and brute force.  As poisons go, this one was perhaps the best of all options. It would at least grant her a space of time in which to set her affairs in order, and its ending would be swift.  There would be few symptoms before the last hour, save the tingling burn as it moved along her nerves, and she would be unconscious before her breath faltered. No unpleasant strangling, this time at least.

She also knew her father would probably bring her back.  It was his way, Ra’s al Ghul did not want to walk the world without his daughter at his side, and she could avoid all this by going to him now.  He would grant her use of the Lazarus Pit and she would rise from it free of the poison, free of the intervening years and scars since her sister Nyssa last murdered and resurrected her, free of everything except memories … and the debt to her father.  

She would not ask him.  Even if he decided not to bring her back, death was better than servitude.  Talia had won her independence at a steep cost, and she’d never wanted immortality anyway.  Not that she sought death; to her own surprise, she had reasons to want to live, and most of them were in Gotham City.  Her first action, then, was to book a plane there. Those who gave her joy deserved a final memory of her.

So she made the arrangements.  The easiest was the least personal: a large donation would be made to a sanctuary for big cats in the name of Selina Kyle.  Respecting such noble beasts, and ensuring their preservation for future generations, was one of the few things Talia and the Cat agreed upon, other than their similar tastes in men.  The donation was a mark of respect for a worthy rival, and Talia hoped it would be received in that light.

Certain mementoes would be sent to Bruce, Jason, and Damian, along with letters she’d drafted years ago and took a few moments to update now.  She wanted to see them, but would not distress them with the knowledge of her doom. All three of them could learn, after the fact, what happened, and know that she had made her peace with it.

She would have to keep her visit to Bruce fairly brief.  He might guess that something was wrong, and the knowledge would torment him.  Her relationship with him had been strained, but Talia could not bear to avoid him.  She needed to look into those intensely blue eyes and see her own reflection there, see the woman he’d fallen in love with, one who didn’t have all the flaws and broken pieces Talia knew existed within her.

Her visit to Bruce would be disguised as a request to take her son out for the day. Damian was sharp-eyed, and knew her well enough that he, too, might guess at a greater motive.  But Talia was confident she could keep him from the truth. It would be a delight just to spend the day with him, her lovely boy, to listen to all the small details of his life. 

For him, she would bring a gift.  Damian loved to draw, and she had already bought a new sketchbook with high-quality paper, bound in leather, for his next birthday.  Since she was going to miss that - the thought rattled her, but she forced herself to steady - she might as well bring it with her. Talia intended that Damian would inherit her books, volumes of poetry and history annotated in her hand, and among them he would find her own old sketchbooks, from when she’d had time enough to indulge in art.

Damian would also inherit her swords.  Her favorite dagger would go to Bruce, likely to be displayed and never used, but he would not appreciate some of her weapons.  Talia’s preferred sidearm was an engraved Colt Python revolver with custom-made grips. Beautiful and deadly, just like Jason to whom she would bequeath it.  He would have her guns, for only he would appreciate them. 

Talia would have dinner with Jason, she decided, so his would be the last face she’d see before the end.  Sometimes Talia thought Jay saw her more clearly than Bruce ever did, though their relationship had been … fraught, to say the least, over the years as he pursued his own path.  She wouldn’t tell him why she’d come to town, but of all the men in her life, the one who like her had returned from death was the one who could best take her mind from the irrevocable fact of mortality.  Jason had always been her indulgence. 

Perhaps, before she left, she would kiss his brow and tell him she loved him.  Words that never truly passed between them, their world and their relationship too complicated for that, but he deserved to know.

Ah, but if her father  _ did  _ resurrect her, what then?  What if all her plans for the end were overturned, and she was sentenced to live at his whim?  If that happened, if death did not free her, then the knowledge that Talia loved him would torment Jason.  She could not do that to him. Just the kiss, then, and let it stand for all she dared not say. 

She would stay with him as long as she could, and then find some quiet, lovely place to await the poison.  There were mountains not far from Gotham, perhaps not so majestic as those of her homeland, but it would be good to look out from such a height at the world below her.  Peace and solace would attend her death, a marked improvement over her past.

Talia thought she was handling it all quite well, getting her affairs in order, but she knew she would face the very end alone … and that, finally, reduced her to tears.


End file.
